The Field of Blood

Set in Glasgow in 1982, Paddy Meehan is a young girl in a world of men; a feisty copy boy in the sexist, hard-boozing, cutthroat world of journalism. Paddy dreams of being an investigative reporter, and she grabs the opportunity when a young boy, Brian Wilcox, is kidnapped and found murdered. Paddy sees connections to a year-old crime that nobody else sees and she is determined to make it her story. But when Paddy crosses the line, she becomes outcast from her devoutly Catholic family and puts the lives of her colleagues, as well as her own, at risk. The closer she gets to the murderer, the closer she gets to murder; and the price of achieving her dream will prove greater than she can ever imagine.

Seasons:

Episodes:

1The Field of Blood: Part 1

2The Field of Blood: Part 2

The police interview the journalists following Heather's death.However,when Paddy tries to persuade them that Brian's murder has the same hallmarks as that of little Thomas Dempsie,whose father killed himself in prison and whose mother she interviewed using Heather's name,they are not interested. Paddy speaks to alcoholic veteran hack Dr. Pete,who is sure Dempsie never murdered his son. Then,with young reporter Terry she finds evidence to suggest that mobile grocery van driver Henry Naismith,a witness in the recent case and Dempsie's cell-mate is the culprit,a fact seemingly borne out when she speaks to Calum. Further investigations down this road lead to a dangerous encounter before she gets her wish to become a fully-fledged reporter.

1The Dead Hour: Part 1

1984:- The miners are on strike and in Glasgow NUM leader Red Willie McDade is suspected of hiding their assets so that the government cannot freeze them. Paddy Meehan and George McVie, reporters for the Daily News, arrive at the scene of a disturbance with police in attendance. However an Irishman assures the journalists that everything is all right and gives them money to leave. The alleged victim, left-wing lawyer Vhari Burnett, declines to press charges but next day Paddy learns that Vhari was murdered. Later the corpse of another lawyer Mark Thillingly, who supported the miners,is pulled from the river. Suicide is assumed, his widow claiming that he had been depressed and behaving oddly before his death. Paddy hands the police the money the Irishman gave her on which are found the finger-prints of Irish gangster Lafferty, though he is not the man Paddy saw at the house. New editor-in-chief Maloney arrives, announcing redundancies to stream-line the paper and make it more populist. She warms to Paddy but criticizes editor Devlin to her. After Vhari's sister Karen disappears, kidnapped by thugs who beat up her brother, Paddy and a reluctant McVie are about to go through Lafferty's dustbin to find evidence to link him to the Burnetts. McVie stays in the car and Paddy, hearing a screech of brakes, turns to find the car has been set on fire. Written by don @ minifie-1

2The Dead Hour: Part 2

McVie survives and, with Paddy, establishes that Thillingly was most likely murdered. They visit McDade to ask about his connection to the dead lawyers. He tells them that Vhari had evidence to expose government dirty tricks in accusing the NUM of fraud, though Maloney presents Devlin with supposed fraud by the union. He realizes that she is colluding with the government to discredit the NUM and boost newspaper sales. Soon afterwards he is beaten up but this incites him to rally the staff to defy Maloney. Paddy and McVie rescue Karen - to whom Vhari passed on her information - from her abductors, Lafferty and Neilson, the man Paddy saw at Vhari's house. They take her to the newspaper office where she reveals the government conspiracy. The News prints a front page exposing the government and police collusion and Maloney is forced to back off. However Paddy discovers that she is pregnant by married policeman Dan Burns, with whom she had been having an affair and who had given her information. Written by don @ minifie-1